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Conference Room Systems

Just connect the Lifesize Icon HD camera system to a TV and the internet, give it power and pair it to your account to start making calls—there simply isn’t a more powerful or easier-to-use video conferencing solution available.

Productivity Tips from the Meeting Experts at Lifesize

We recently surveyed the Lifesize user base to learn more about the connection between video conferencing and productivity. Not surprisingly (at least to us), 98% of respondents agreed with the sentiment that improved communication and collaboration lead to improved productivity. By adding video conferencing to the meeting, relationships were marked as improved, the time required to complete projects and tasks dropped, travel dependencies were all but eliminated and the communication comprehension between attendees was notably stronger.

All of these outcomes combine to increase productivity — getting more done with better quality and in less time. By how much? According to our respondents, just adding video to meetings improves productivity by up to 50%. To really tip the meeting productivity scales, we’ve assembled a few more meeting tips:

1. Plan Intelligently

Whether you’re leading or attending a meeting, be sure to plan ahead before showing up. A meeting agenda gives everyone time to prepare their contributions and keeps the conversation on track and relevant. If you need help drafting an agenda, check out our downloadable sample agenda template.

2. Meetings Add Up

It’s important to remember that meetings come at the opportunity cost of other work. Blocking out two hours and inviting 10 people to your meeting takes up almost a full calendar day’s worth of worker hours. Invite only the people who will add to the discussion and contribute meaningfully to the meeting goals. If the content of the meeting is beneficial for larger audiences, consider recording it and sharing the link for people to watch or listen to in their downtime.

3. Beware the Recurring Meeting

Remember the worker hours we talked about before? Recurring meetings make the problem exponentially worse. They are often less productive than one-time meetings because the topics usually revolve around project status updates. One way to stay up to date on projects without wasting time in meetings is to use a persistent collaboration tool like chat. Chat can keep a running history of project notes and let people get up to date on their own time without having to be in a meeting.

4. Be On Time, Don’t Waste Time, Keep Track of Time

Time is a big part of the productivity equation. Be respectful and show up on time to avoid delaying the meeting kickoff. Sitting around trying to fill the dead air with commute talk while you wait for the last person to show up is a productivity pit. Start on time and end on time (or earlier).

5. Park the Side Conversations

It’s tempting to use meeting time to quickly cover something else while we’re all here, but don’t. If it wasn’t on the agenda, then it needs a separate conversation. Give people time to prep and come to the table with the information they need to contribute meaningfully.

6. Automate the Note Taking

It’s difficult to balance contributing to a meeting or a brainstorm session and also take notes of everyone else’s contributions. You’ve got two choices here — hire a full-time scribe to follow you around, or let technology do the heavy record keeping. Recording meetings with something like Lifesize Cloud Amplify lets you focus more on being present in the moment since you’ve always got the recording to fall back on.

Ready for improved meeting productivity? It’s your call.

Productive meetings come from a combination of meeting room tech and good meeting habits. If you’re looking for more on the topic of meeting productivity, check out our guide on How to Own Your Meetings.